An RPL Assessment Task asks students to provide evidence or responses against multiple assessment criteria. The student can upload or link evidence against each of the criteria for an assessor to mark. Students can be enrolled in an RPL Assessment as a standalone assessment, or as part of a Learning Plan.

An important point to remember is that the RPL Assessment base type is just a label. It can be used for other purposes, not just Recognition-of-Prior-Learning Assessments. Many users choose to utilise this Assessment base type for Portfolio or Project Based Assessments.

You may choose to configure an assessment this way if:

A student applies for RPL for one or more units
You require students to compile a portfolio of evidence against multiple criteria
You require students to compile a portfolio of evidence including reports, documents, presentations, videos and images
You require students to complete a project (for example, build a pizza oven) with many steps and performance criteria, and submit evidence for each step in the process

If this methodology sounds similar to how you run some of your courses, read on to see how this can be configured in aXcelerate.

Configuring the Assessment Type

Before creating an RPL Assessment Task, you will first need to ensure that you have set up an Assessment Type.

Assessments

Assessment Types

Click the Add New Assessment Type button
Enter a Name for the Assessment Type. Try to follow a standard naming convention so that the Assessment Type is easy to locate and identify
(Optional) Enter a Description explaining the purpose of the Assessment Type
Select the Base Type: RPL Evidence
Select the checkboxes for Task Visible to Learner, Task Items Visible to Learner and Learner can complete and any other settings you require. (Only choose the File Upload checkbox if you want every question in the assessment task to have this option. If you want to limit the file upload option to specific questions you can choose “File Upload” as a Question Type when authoring the assessment later)
Click Submit

Your Assessment Type settings will likely differ depending on whether you are trying to make an assessment for an actual RPL upload:

Or a practical project submission:

When you have created your Assessment Type, it will appear in the Assessments Type List. You will see the Name of the Assessment Type, the Description (if you have entered information in this field) and the Base Type.

For more information on how to set up an Assessment Type, please refer to our Assessment Types help article.

Warning: You cannot change the Base Type of the Assessment Type after you have created it, so we recommend checking that you have selected the correct one before you click Submit.

Creating the RPL Task

Now that you have created an Assessment Type, you can start to build the assessment task!

It is a good idea to have the files and information you need ready before you start. This may include:

Adding the document (you want students to download and complete) to the aXcelerate Resource Library, or to your organisation’s online filing system
Adding any images you want to use as the thumbnail for this Assessment to the aXcelerate Images Library, or to your organisation’s online filing system
Knowing your RTO’s Assessment Policies regarding the number of times a student can attempt (resit) an assessment task
Have the relevant Training and Assessment Strategy available so you can name assessment tasks as listed by your RTO documentation
You may even have the questions or criteria pre-prepared, so you can paste them in

Assessments

Assessment Management

After clicking the + Add New Assessment button on the Assessment Management page in aXcelerate, you’ll need to go through and address several fields:

Enter your Assessment Task Name. Try to follow a standard naming convention so that the Assessment Task is easy to locate and identify, for example, “Unit Code Assessment Number: Assessment Name.” Your RTO may have a compliance requirement that the Assessment Task name matches the name listed in the Course Training and Assessment Strategy. Assessment task names must not exceed 100 Characters.
Select the Assessment Type from the drop-down list. You are looking for the name you created when you configured the Assessment Type earlier.
(Optional) Drag and drop an image to be the thumbnail for this Assessment when viewed in the Learner Portal or add a URL for the thumbnail image. (Accepted formats: JPG, PNG, GIF)
Enter the default Max Attempts as per your RTO Assessment Policy.
Enter your default Passing Percentage.
(Optional) Select Default Assessors from the drop-down list of Assessor names. Default Assessors will be used if the respective Classes or Units do not have an Assessor specified when the assessment is deployed. Default Assessor/s can also be overridden individually later if needed.
Enter an Overview of the Assessment. This is information about the assessment that is typically provided to students when they start a unit via the Learner Portal. For example, you could provide an overview of the evidence they are required to collect. Alternatively, if it is acceptable for students to have all details of an assessment task immediately, you could provide the detailed requirements in this section.
Enter information to the Assessor. This information is not visible to the student and is only shown to Assessors when they are marking the assessment. You may choose to type information for the Assessor/s, or add a link to a marking guide.
(Optional) Enter additional student information if required. Student information is displayed to the student at the time you give them access to start the assessment. If you want the students to have access to the finer details of an assessment task from a particular date (for example, 3 weeks after the Unit Start date) add them here.
Click the Create Assessment button

Creating the assessment task will automatically take you through to the authoring area for that specific task.

Tip: To add a hyperlink in your assessment to allow your students to download documents, first highlight the text that you want to link to, click the Link icon in the toolbar of any text editors, and then paste the URL into the URL field.

Warning: If you use an online filing system external to aXcelerate, you will need to update links in the assessment task if you ever move the document.

Authoring the RPL Task

After creating the initial assessment task, you will subsequently need to author it and fill it with relevant items and content.

Click the + Add New Question or Content button (see the Questions for an RPL Task section below for more information about your options).
After creating each question, click on the Save Question button.
When you have created all of your questions you can drag and drop them into a different order. You can also add Sections to organise the assessment task.
Click on the Save Changes button before you exit the assessment authoring area.
(Recommended) Click the Preview button to see what the assessment will look like for students. This is an important step because it allows you to identify any errors before you Publish the task. Note down any changes you need to make as you preview the task.
When you have finished, click the Publish button.
After authoring your assessment task you will need to map the task to the relevant Unit/s of Competency

For further detail on how to author an assessment task, please refer to our Assessment Authoring help article. For more information on how to map an assessment task as described in Step 15 above, please refer to our Assessment Mapping help article.

Note: There is a 1GB limit on each file uploaded by the student (multiple files are allowed).

Note: The Preview button will display the assessment for you, however, it is not in the format that will be displayed to the student. The student will simply see the Overview and Student information set at the assessment task level. The student will then be allowed a file upload or text response.

Questions for an RPL Task

You will have four choices of question type to select from when adding questions to the assessment task:

Content
File Upload
Basic
Marking Criteria

For further information how these specific types function, please refer to our Assessment Authoring help article.

Enrolling Students in an Assessment Task

We recommend that you use Learning Plans to deploy assessments to your students. Learning Plans help structure content and assessments to manage the student’s progression through the materials. Even if you are not delivering content in a complex order/sequence, Learning Plans simplify the management and access for your courses, including ensuring any assessment mapping you’ve completed will automatically link activities to Units of Competency.

Rarely, you may need to issue an assessment to a student as a Standalone assessment task, for example, if a student has applied for an RPL before they enrol in a Course.

For more information about how to add an Assessment Task to a Learning Plan, please refer to our Learning Plans help article.

For more information on how to enrol a student in a Standalone Assessment Instance, please refer to our Assessment Management help article.

How Will Students View the Assessment Task?

After logging in to the Learner Portal the Student will see an Assessments button. Clicking on this button will take the students to any assessments tasks that are open for them to complete. Alternatively, if the Assessment is inside a Learning Plan, the student can also click into a relevant Module of the Plan and launch their assessment task from there.

When the Student selects the assessment task in the Learner Portal they will see the Overview information about the assessment and anything you have entered into the Student instructions.

When the student selects the Start Attempt 1 of X button they will be redirected to the first item in the Assessment Task. When the student has typed or uploaded their response, the Save & Next button will become available.

When the student completes the final question they select the Save button.

The Submit Assessment button will then become available to complete the submission process.

Afterwards, the student can view their submission date and time by clicking on the assessment task in their list of assessments. Once the submission is graded the Results tab will become active.